White Dwarf/M Dwarf Binaries as Single Degenerate Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (1209.1021v2)

Abstract: Limits on the companions of white dwarfs in the single degenerate scenario for the origin of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) have gotten increasingly tight. The only type of non-degenerate stars that survive the limits on the companions of SNIa in SNR 0509-67.5 and SN1572 are M dwarfs. M dwarfs have special properties that have not been considered in most work on the progenitors of SNIa: they have small but finite magnetic fields, and they flare frequently. These properties are explored in the context of SNIa progenitors. White dwarf/M dwarf pairs may be sufficiently plentiful to provide an adequate rate of explosions. Even modest magnetic fields on the white dwarf and M dwarf will yield adequate torques to lock the two stars together, resulting in a slowly rotating white dwarf, with the magnetic poles pointing at one another in the orbital plane. The mass loss will be channeled by a "magnetic bottle" connecting the two stars, landing on a concentrated polar area on the white dwarf. This enhances the effective rate of accretion compared to spherical accretion. Luminosity from accretion and hydrogen burning on the surface of the white dwarf may induce self-excited mass transfer. The combined effects of self-excited mass loss, polar accretion, and magnetic inhibition of mixing of accretion layers give possible means to beat the "nova limit" and grow the white dwarf to the Chandrasekhar mass even at rather moderate mass accretion rates.